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No. 622,922. Patentd Apr. u, I899. w. P. HORTON, JR. METHOD OF ANDAPPARATUS FOR ADMINISTERING THERAPEUTIC ELECTRICITY.

(Application filed Dec. 5, 1898.)

(No Model.)

g h 4 wLMM/ T 9%,; 2% @262 350625223942 UNITED STATES PATENT ()EFICE-WILLIAM P. HORTON, JR, OF oLEvELAND, onro, ASSIGNOR TO THE HORTONELEcTRIc OBTUNDING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR ADMINISTERING THERAPEUTIC ELECTRlCITY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent Ne. 622,922, dated April 11, 1899.

Application filed December 5, 1898. Serial No. 698,277. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM P. HORTON, Jr., a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Ouyahoga and State ofOhio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Methods ofand Apparatus for Administering Therapeutic Electricity, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being hadto the accompanying-drawings.

If a high-potential induced current and a low-potentialcontinuouscurrent be administered at the same time to the human body,the therapeutic effect is very much enhanced over that produced byeither current alone.'

with the coil and thus adapted to make and break the circuit through thecoil and cause it to prod uce an induced current, a governing resistanceseparate from the coil,whereby the current may be regulated withoutvarying the coil, and such electrical connection that one cell locallyoperates the vibrator by leading through it and the coil and the othercell is on a circuit which passes through the governing resistance andthe patient, but in so doing divides into two paths, one of which leadsthrough the coil and the other through the first cell and the vibratorwhen closed. The inducing-coil which I use is a magnetic intensif ying-coil,bein g but a few turns around a solid bar, and produces an extrainduced current instead of a secondary current. The vibrator is operateddirectly by the magnetism of the core. There is a metallic sleevesurrounding the coil, which softens the induced current, reducing itsjarring effect.

Now the parts and connections being as above stated, when the vibratorhas the local circuit closed the current from the second cell travelsalong the same conductor as the current from the first cell through thevibrator and the patient receives the voltaic current from the secondcell, and when the vibrator opens the local circuit the patient receivesthe extra induced current from the coil and the thus modified voltaiocurrent from the second cell,which now passes through the patient andthe coil. Thus at all times, whether the vibrator is closed or open, thepatient receives the current from the second cell, and this is modifiedwhen the vibrator opens the local circuit by the extra induced currentfrom the coil.

The drawings are a clear illustration of my apparatus.

Figure 1 is a plan thereof. elevation, partly sectional; and Fig. 3 isadiagram of the component parts and their connections.

Referring to the parts by letters, A represents a suitable base which ispreferably the top of a shallow box at, having the sides a and thebottom a B B represent the two Voltaic cells, which may be covered by asuitable shield, (indicated by the dotted line Z) in Fig. 2.)

O is the coil, which is simply an intensifying-coil consisting of a fewturns of comparativelylarge wire around a solid core a between the heads0.

D represents the vibrator, which consists of an armature d, secured toone end of a spring-strip d, and the other end of which is rigid with asleeve (1 This sleeveis clamped adj ustably to a stationary verticalstud d by means of a set-screw (F. This construction of vibrator,however, is not my invention.

E represents the point with which the vibrator is adapted to make orbreak connection.

F represents a switch for opening the circuit from the cell B throughthe patient, and G G represent the binding-posts with which theconductors from the patient are connected. These conductors mayterminate in handles, which the patient grasps, as indicated by H inFig. 3.

J represents the resistance. It consists of Fig. 2 is a side a set ofspools of very fine wire J. These spools are connected together inseries, and each spool is also connected with a head J These spools arecontained within the box (1 below the base-plate A, and their heads arein the depression a in thatbase-plate. These heads are adapted tocontact with the plunger carried by the knob j, which slides in aslotted platej, which is connected with the binding-post G. A washer anda nut 7' screwed to the knob beneath the platej secure the knob slidablyto that plate, while a springj surrounding the shank of the plunger andbearing at one end against the plunger and at the other against theknob, gives the plunger the desired spring-pressure against the headsjThe head j is also provided, which has no resistance, but is directlyconnected with the line.

Now when the plunger is in contact with the first spoolihat is, the oneat the left hand in the drawings-the circuit must pass through all ofthe spools. When the knob is moved to the right one head, the resistancein the first spool is cut out, and each subsequent movement cuts out thepreceding spool until when the knob is at the extreme right the totalresistance is cut out. As shown in the drawings, the first three spoolsare of one thousand ohms resistance, and the next two of five hundredeach, and thus the resistance inserted into the line may be fourthousand, three thousand, two thousand, one thousand, five hundred, orzero ohms. It is to be observed that these spools are all wound in thesame direction and around metallic centers, wherefore they haveself-induction, which reduces and thus governs the extra induced currentfrom the coil 0. Thus the cutting out of resistance simultaneouslyincreases both the voltaic current and the induced current.

The electrical connections are indicated by numerals.

1 is the line from the positive pole P of the cell 13 to the coil.

2 is the line from the coil to the vibrator.

3 is the line from the point E to the negative pole N of the cell 13,this constituting the local circuit through the coil and vibrator.

4c is the line from the positive pole P of the cell 13 to the switch F.

5 is the line from the switch F to the binding-post G.

6 is the line from the binding-post G to the resistance.

7 is the line from the resistance to the vibrator, and 8 is the linefrom the positive pole of the cell 13 to the negative pole N of ,thecell 13 When the vibrator stands in the position shown in the drawings,the current from the cell 13 travels locally in the direction of thearrows along the'circuit composed by the line 1, the coil 0, the line 2,the vibrator, the point E, and the line b. At the same time if theswitch F is closed (it is shown open in the drawings) and thebinding-posts G and G are connected through the patient a shuntcirenitis established via the line 8 through the cell B via the line at throughthe switch F along the line 5 through the patient, via the line (3through such portion of the resistence as the knob cuts in, and via theline 7 to the vibrator. As the resistance of this circuit, however, isseveral thousand ohms, while the circuit through the vibrator is preferably only the fraction of an ohm, the current which the patientobtains from the cell 13 is immaterial, but he obtains the full currentfrom the cell B The current from the cell l3, traveling around the coilC, energizes its core a, and the armature is drawn toward the core, thusbreaking the circuit at the point E. The cell B is thus out of circuit;but if the switch F is closed and the patient holds the handles II thecurrent from the cell 13 passes from 1, as before, through the patientand the resist ance to the vibrator, and from thence via the line 2, thecoil O, and the lines 1 and S to the negative pole 1., this passagethrough the coil being possible because the voltaic current from Bthrough it has ceased. At the same time the patient receives the extrainduced current caused by the magnetism of the coil which travels alongthe conductors f2, 7, (3, 5, 4, S, and 1 in the direction of the arrows,and thus through the patient and the resistance.

The current from the second cell is so reduced by the resistance of thepatient that it does not energize the coil sufficiently to retain thevibrator, and the latter springs back by its own resilience and closesthe local circuit. Thus the patient receives alternately first thevoltaic current from the cell 13 and an insignificant portion from thecell 13 and then the voltaic current from the cell Bflmodified by theextra induced current from the coil C.

The cutting out of resistance, which is dis tinct from the windings ofthe inducing-coil increases, as desired, the quantity of current whichthe patient receives without reducing the induced current, and by thismeans a more beneficial current is obtained than where the regulation iscaused by governing the electromotive force of the induced current byshielding the core, as is the usual custom, or where the regulation issuch that as one current increases the other decreases.

Having described my invention, I claim-- 1. The method of administeringtherapeutic electricity which consists in supplying the patientalternately a quantity of voltaic current and then a quantity of veltaiccurrent modified by the extra induced current from a magnetic coil andgoverning the quantity by an interposed self-inductive resistance whichallows the simultaneous increasing of both the voltaic current and theinduced current.

2. In a medical battery, in combination, a

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'source of voltaic electricity, a source of induced electricity,suitable connections whereby both may pass through a patient at thesametime, and an inductively-wound resistance and means for varying theamount of the same which is in circuit whereby the two currents may beincreased simultaneously.

In a medical battery, in combination, a voltaic cell, suitableconnections whereby a current therefrom may flow through the patient,and an inducing apparatus which forms part of this circuit at the timethe induced currentis taking place whereby this induced currentsimultaneously flows through the pa tient, and a governing resistancewhich is separate from the inducing apparatus.

t. In a medical battery, in combination, a voltaic cell, suitableconnections whereby a current therefrom may flow through a patient, amagnetic intensifying-coil causing an extra induced current in thecircuit where the voltaic current is flowing, said coil being surroundedby a metallic sleeve whereby the induced current is softened.

5. An apparatus consisting of two voltaic cells, an inducing-coil, avibrator in series with the coil and thus adapted to make and break thecircuit through the coil and cause it to produce an induced current, anda governing resistance, and such electrical connections that one celllocally operates the vibrator by leading through it and the coil and theother cell is in a circuit which passes through the governing resistanceand the pa tient, but in so doing divides into two paths, one of whichleads through the coil and the other through the first cell and thevibrator when closed.

6. A medical battery consisting of the voltaic cells B 13 the magneticcoil 0, the vibrator D adapted to be operated thereby, the point E withwhich the vibrator makes or breaks contact, the governing resistance J,the lines 1, 2, 3 connecting the cell 13 locally through the coil, aline 4 leading fromithe cell B and adapted to continue through thepatient to the vibrator, and a line 8 connecting the pole of the cell Bwith which the line 1 is connected with the pole of the cell 13 withwhich the line 4 is not connected, substantially as described.

7. In a medical battery, in combination, the cells B E the coil 0, thevibrator D, the point E, the resistance J, the switch F, thebinding-posts G and G, the line 1 leading from the cell '13 to the coil,the line 2 from the coil to the Vibrator, the line 3 from the point E tothe other pole from the cell B, the line 4: from the cell B to theswitch, the line 5 from the switch to the binding-post G, the line 6from the binding-post G to the resistance J, the line 7 from theresistance to the vibrator, and the line 8 connecting the remaining poleof the cell B with that pole of the cell B which is connectedwith theline 1, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aiiix my signature in the presence oftwo witnesses.

WILLIAM P. HORTON, JR, Witnesses:

PHILIP E. KNOWLTON, E. L. THURsToN.

